The line up:
1. Caleb, 2. Nicky, 3. Ryan, 4. Aly, 5. Daniel, 6. Steven L., 7. Clint, 8. Kevin, 9. Michael, 10. Andrew W., 11. Coleman, 12. Chase, 13. Edmund, 14. Eric, 15. Zack
Reserves: Conner, Seth, John M.
The match kicked off on time and it was on, both UTD and SEU came out on fire, and it took only 6 minutes into the match for the first score to be grounded. And that score was by UT Dallas Number 8, Kevin Clift who took a nifty pass and sliced through SEU to score the first Try of the game and Edmund made the conversion to give UTD a 7 to 0 lead over SEU. But that lead wouldn't last long, SEU was able to take possession of the ball and marched down the pitch to score 2 Trys along with one conversion. Now SEU had the lead 12 points to UT Dallas' 7 and that is how the first half came to an end.
The second half began and was pretty much like the first half, both sides attacking each other and both sides defending their territory in a very entertaining match, unless you were on the side lines, then you were probably biting nails. Early in the second half, Connor (UTD) was able to score a Try to even the match at 12 points each. Which gave us life, but there was still a lot of time remaining and SEU wasn't giving up. Then SEU found a gap in the UTD defense and rumbled in to score their 3rd Try of the match, now SEU had a 17 to 12 lead over UTD. This time, it was UT Dallas turn to take advantage of turn over ball, deep in SEU territory. SEU defended their goal line with a very stiff defense, but it was Andrew Whiteis who was able to sneak through and score the game tying Try. Now with the score even at 17, it was anyone's game. SEU was marching down the pitch and controlling the ball with a series of pick and goes and their fullback joined the attack line to get deep into UT Dallas territory. This time is was UTD's turn to defend their goal line and that they did in great fashion and even managed to steal the ball from SEU. UT Dallas in an effort to get SEU out of our red zone, we kicked away possession, and the SEU fullback was only able to bring it to about mid way between the half way line and goal line and again UTD was able to poach away SEU's possession. And one of the series of rucks, Scrumhalf, Michael Shamoun saw a gap in the SEU defense picked up the ball and ran almost 65 yards down the field to score the game winning Try and Kevin converted that Try to give UTD a score of 24 to SEU's 17.
That is how the game ended, and for the first time in 4 years UT Dallas was able to beat St. Edward's. St. Edward's is a very good team and I know that if we meet them in the playoffs, they will be ready to avenge this match and I think that we'll be just as ready.
This week everyone has the weekend off, with the USA Eagles set to play a game in Round Rock, I'm encouraging everyone to make the trip to watch and support the Eagles. Our next match will be Feb. 18th at home against Rice University. I'll write a little about the Rice/UT Dallas history next week.